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When Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy it had a strong
impact on some Italians who had settled in Alberta. The
consular agents and priests became the vehicle for
communicating the ideology to local settlers. Father Carlo
Fabris came from
Italy to be the Pastor and, according to
Mrs. Mary (Biollo) Doyle,
established the Fascio de Venice.
Tony
Bonifacio's unpublished
history of the Venice settlement, as well as an interview with
Rudolph Michetti by Richard Watts, a staff writer with The
Edmonton Journal, which appeared in the paper in October,
1984, provide additional details. In 1924, Rudolph
Michetti was sent by his Father Guiseppe to study steam
engineering at the Alberta Institute of Technology. Mr.
Bonifacio mentions Mr. Michetti boarded with an Italian
family in Calgary and got to know
Antonio
Rebaudengo,
who founded the Fascist Party in Calgary. Knowing
of the Venice settlement from Rudolph Michetti, Rebaudengo
went to Venice in November, 1925, to found the Fascio de Venice with
Rudolph Michetti,
Efisio Manca and
Benedetto Coli.
Mr. Bonifacio states that all
the Italians in the community got their memberships and were
proud of this and Mr. Rebaudengo returned to Calgary. It is
also mentioned that the party flag was blessed. Mr. Bonifacio asserts that
the Fascio was a social club with members
paying annual fees and getting together two or three times a
year for picnics. He states: "Of course, they idolized
Mussolini, and they hoped that he would improve the way of
life in Italy for the relatives, and friends that they had
left behind years gone by." He estimates the
membership of the Fascio at about 40.
Everything changed when Mussolini declared war on Canada
and Italians were declared enemy aliens. Mr. Bonifacio
writes:
With Italy becoming allied with Germany the ghost of
the Fascist in Venice is resurrected, and opens up a can of
worms. Someone reported to the R.C.M.P. in Lac La Biche that
the party had existed in Venice, and that led to an
investigation by the police. Although the party had ceased
to exist for many years, the police located records that Mr.
Coli in Hylo still had and some of the names led to the
arrest of
O.J. Biollo first. He was taken to Calgary and
sent to a concentration camp in Kananaskis. A short time
later Rudolph Michetti,
Augusto Marini, Efisio Manca, and
Joe Michetti
were arrested and taken to Edmonton, and after
a hearing the three were sent home only Rudolph was sent to
Kananaskis to keep O.J. Biollo company. A short time later
they were transferred to a camp in Petawawa Ontario. At this
camp they were among German and Italian prisoners of war.
Mr. Biollo suffered from severe bronchitis all his life so
he was assigned to light duty in the compound, but Rudolph
along with other prisoners were taken daily with trucks
escorted by armed guards to the forest to cut down tress
that were to be used as mine props.1
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